Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Vogue, January 1, 1950, cover
Erwin Blumenfeld described himself as “smuggling art” into the world of fashion. His photography was influenced by surrealism and Dada. On this cover for Vogue, only an eyebrow, eye, lips, and mole…
“Let My People Go” poster
This poster of the Soviet Jewry movement, which, from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s fought for the right of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union, uses a hammer and sickle, a symbol of communism…
Self-Portrait
Solomon Nunes Carvalho is thought to have made this daguerreotype self-portrait when he was already well trained in the art of photography. A few years after he made this portrait, in 1853 and 1854…
Ketubah (Isfahan)
The ketubah is a religious and legal contract of marriage. Traditionally, it outlines the conjugal and economic conditions of a marriage and is written in Aramaic. This ornate one from Isfahan, Iran…
Sermon of the Fast of Av (Synagogue of Amsterdam)
Edouard Brandon’s painting of Amsterdam’s famous Portuguese Synagogue (1675) is set on the Ninth of Av, a fast day commemorating and mourning the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Members of the…
Letter to the Editor: On Zionism and the Mizrachi
God bless. Lida, 17th of Tammuz 5664To the distinguished editor, the great and wise rabbi, may his name be praised and glorified, etc., our teacher R. David Katzburg, publisher of the journal Tel…
A Call for the Assistance of the Refugees from Germany
The situation of our brethren in Germany is so frightful that it is unparalleled since the Middle Ages and the time of the decrees of 1648 and 1649. [ . . . ] In “cultured” Germany an enemy has arisen…
An Open Letter
With God’s help, may the Lord order blessing, life, and peace for the leaders and fine men, preeminent individuals, etc., and for their head, the Great Rabbi, etc.Hear, congregation of the Lord and…
The End of the Jewish People?
At last you admit that Israel, caught up in the wave of technical progress, is becoming an industrial society “like the others.” You find it acceptable that the Jews, transformed in the…
The Rise of Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism is a phenomenon of man’s restless spirit. At its best it is a dynamic faith—and its very dynamism…
La Buena Esperansa (The Good Hope)
Hamburg, July 7. (Personal communication) In Smyrna, a newspaper will now be published in the Jewish-Spanish language commonly spoken there, entitled La Buena Esperansa. We have the prospectus dated…